Food Friday~Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream

So here is the recipe I promised, it is a Paula Deen recipe.  If I had to make it over I would not add the cream filling.  But I will give you the whole recipe and you can decide.  They are addicting!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Cream Filling & Coffee Buttercream Frosting

2 1/4 C all purpose flour
2 C sugar
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 C vegetable oil
1 C strong brewed coffee, cooled,  I used instant~ easy
3 large eggs
1 8oz. container sour cream
1 t vanilla extract
Coffee cream filling, recipe follows
Coffee Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line muffin pans with paper liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add oil, coffee, and eggs.  Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.  Mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Spoon the batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, for 16-18 minutes.  Let them cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes.  Remove from the pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Spoon coffee cream filling into a squeeze bottle with a long narrow tip.  Insert the tip into the top of cupcake and squeeze about 1 T of filling into center of each cupcake.
OKAY....WHOAH Paula Deen.  Not so quick and simple.  I didn't have a bottle like this, I used this:

And that didn't work to well, for some reason my nozzle kept getting clogged, maybe it was to small and it was very hard to squeeze out, and after I thought I had been squeezing half the tube in, I still had no way of telling how much was in there, except to break the cupcake in half and see for myself.  Of course I had to eat those test cakes. (I made this a couple months ago before I started, my grain/sugar free diet).

Spread the coffee buttercream frosting evenly over the cupcakes and garnish with chocolate covered coffee beans, if desired.  That would have been good, but I didn't have any chocolate covered coffee beans, and I found that these cupcakes and the coffee frosting were pretty coffee flavored, which I love, but the bean would have been to much.

Coffee Cream Filling

1 (3 oz.) package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 C coffee flavored liqueur, ok I didn't have this and don't remember what I replaced it with! 
1 (8 oz.) container frozen chocolate flavored whipped topping, thawed.  I had regular flavored cool whip and squirted some chocolate syrup in it.

In a small bowl, whip the cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.  Slowly add the liqueur and fold in whipped topping.  Cover and chill.

Coffee Buttercream Frosting

1/2 C butter, softened
3 C confectioners sugar
1/4 C strong brewed coffee, I used instant again.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.  Gradually add the confectioners sugar, beating until smooth, then beat in coffee.  I think I added more confectioner sugar to make mine thicker.

These are extremely delicious and would be still amazing without the cream filling.